This Saturday, the men’s tennis team will make the journey to Williams College to take part in the NCAA Division III Tournament. After a tough loss to Amherst College in the NESCAC Tournament last weekend, the team was unsure they would be competing, but their overall record proved them worthy of an at-large NCAA bid. Overall, the team is 15-5 following a string of recent losses.

The Polar Bears will go up against the winner of the first round game between University of Massachusetts, Boston and Washington and Lee University, with a goal of playing in the championship on Saturday.

Many members of the small team did not have experience competing at the collegiate level due to the pandemic prior to this season, so making it to the NCAA Tournament has been a significant aspect of the team’s successful spring season.

“We definitely met the goal that we set out to make, the baseline goal of making it to the championships,” captain Ethan Bradley ’24 said. “I think for a young team, it’s really hard to set goals, because we’ve only had two people that have gone through a full season. At the start, we didn’t know where we stood. I think it has been a pretty successful season so far, I would say, with hopefully a lot more to come.”

Looking forward, the team is taking the opportunity to strengthen their mindsets in preparation for the tournament.

“The actual result isn’t always in our control, so we work towards controlling things that we can, [like] body language, attitude, the right effort, all that,” Bradley said. “If we can do all those things, we can get away from the weekend feeling good about what we’ve done throughout this season.”

After this season, the team has high hopes for a bright future.

“Going forward, after the season, we need to look in the mirror and figure out all the things that we need to work on as a team,” Bradley said. “Having that reflection time, across the summer and into next fall, we’ll be able to have an even better mentality.”